Primitive man hunted, fished, lit the fire and DID THE COOKING Women fetched the water and firewood, gathered the herbs and the edible plants and, of course, took care of the children. Over time women took over the cooking role, even brewing the beer in England in the middle ages. Men moved on into farming, fighting and more recently going out to work as the principle breadwinner. By the nineteenth century men were, in many cases, shut out of the kitchen. Now, in the twenty-first century, the roles have changed again, particularly with the advent of gender equality. Boys have the opportunity to learn cooking at school; men are expected to help in the house and sometimes also in the kitchen. Single men, living on their own, have no choice but to cook for themselves or go out to eat. As students they may have started off cooking with only a can opener, a toaster and a tin of beans but never got any further. So, as a man, how do you progress from there? Shaun Dowling, the author of One Man Cooking, has the answer. Not with a beautifully illustrated set of recipes presented by a celebrity chef with a host of ingredients - and stacks of washing up to follow - however. No, this is a very sensible cookbook, covering most of the well known dishes, easy to follow and with lots of short cuts. It makes frequent use of the saute pan and the microwave and wine is used in a lot of recipes. It is ideal for a man starting to cook, or building up his repertoire of dishes. He can cook for himself, for his partner or for a guest as well. He will enjoy the cooking, not find it a chore, taking his mind off day-to-day worries. Shaun knows that, deep down, men actually do enjoy cooking and if you don't believe that, watch the faces of the men cooking outside on a barbecue; they are immersed in the job, taking time out for a glass of beer and watching the sausages to see they don't get burnt to a cinder. The recipes in this book are not complicated and are shown in sections for starters, soups, salads, eggs and cheese, fish, pasta, chicken, beef, lamb, pork, vegetarian and risottos. There are also brief recipes for sauces and dressings. If you don't have the ingredients shown in the recipe, or if you don't like one of them, just experiment and enjoy. This is all part of the learning process. So, if you would like to try your hand at cooking, if you want to try some new recipes or if your partner thinks you should do more of the cooking, particularly if she is out at work, the this is the book for you."